Lakefront-property buyers thinking small

by Caroline Bermudez for The Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne Indiana

HAMILTON -- Almost 30 years have passed since Mable Nodine's house was moved intact across the ice from Auburn to rest 30 miles away on its new stone foundation on Hamilton Lake in Steuben County.

"I don't like too big a lake," Nodine said, explaining how she picked Hamilton from the hundreds of lakes in northeastern Indiana.

"Here (at Hamilton), we're more like a family.  We're close to our neighbors," said Nodine, 76.

Nodine's attraction to close-knit communities on smaller lakes reflects what at least one real estate agent is calling a rediscovery of the state's smaller lakes.

Real estate brokers of lakefront properties in Whitley and LaGrange counties said they are having one of their best years ever.

"In Whitley County, any property for $85,000 or below is immediately sold," said Del Auer, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Auer & Davison Realtors in Columbia City.

"Even in bad times, lakefront properties appreciate in value and sell quickly, but this is a seller's market," Auer said.

Lake cottages are the foundation of many Lakes Region counties.

Many families from Fort Wayne and throughout the region have owned the same cottage on the same lake for generations.

One of the reasons more buyers now are looking to smaller lakes is that the supply of lakefront property on bigger lakes is down.

"This year wasn't as good (as last year) for us," said Fred Beck, president of Beck-Buell Realty in Angola.  "But I don't believe there is a shortage of lakefront property."

Beck said he believes that in Steuben County, the county with the second-highest concentration of lakes in northeast Indiana, fewer homes are available, but there isn't a shortage.

"What happened is that people weren't buying when interest rates were up, so lakefront properties for sale accumulated," Beck said.  "Then interest rates went down and people bought up most of the stockpile of cottages."

But lakefront property is so scarce that buyers who can afford to do so are buying the cheaper properties, tearing down the existing construction and rebuilding, according to real estate agents.

"If you can buy a lot on the lake and put anything on it, you're going to make money," said Penny Miller, principal owner of Real Estate Sails in Wolcottville.

Nodine's two-story house with three bedrooms, a huge kitchen and lakeside glassed-in porch is packaged in white aluminum siding and fits the description of what area real estate agents think sells well in today's lakefront market.

But even though Nodine could make a lot of money by selling her home, she said she wouldn't sell it.

When Nodine bought the house, the purchase was not exactly what she envisioned her lakefront cottage to be.

But since she and her late husband, Silas, bought the cottage in 1959, they have remodeled and rebuilt to turn that cottage into a home.

"There's a lot of sentimental value in this house," Nodine said.  "Nothing would make me sell."

Lake residents are very happy with their homes and just don't want to sell them, Miller said.

"When residents do hear of a property that's up for sale, they call their friends to take a look at it," she said.  "Eighty percent of my clients are referred to me by their friends or relatives who have cottages on the lake."

Lakefront cottages are not strictly weekend retreats anymore - they are year-round homes, lakefront real estate agents say.

"I think there is a national trend toward a higher quality of life," said Beck, "and people are willing to drive more than few miles so that their families can have a better home with more amenities."

THis week, 30 acres of farmland near the junction of interstate 69 and Steuben County Road 200 near Angola are being auctioned, and are drawing attention from real estate brokers and developers because they constitute the last substantial undeveloped tract in the Lake James area.

Ann Neuenschwander, one of the owners of the property, said she expects the buyer will finish the subdivision already started, which has one street and two houses so far.

Interest rates have also played a part in the trend toward year-round lake living.

As interest rates begin to rise, it is becoming too expensive to own two homes, and instead of selling their lakeside property, people are selling their in-town homes and keeping close to water, Beck said.

This is especially true of older couples who are retired or are planning to retire soon.

Price plays an important part in deciding on which lake to purchase their new home.

The prices on larger lakes, such as Lake Wawasee (3,060 surface acres) and Lake James (1,140 surface acres), are higher than the prices of comparable properties on smaller lakes such as Shriner Lake (120 surface acres) in Whitley County.

"You can get a nice property for $45,000 here (in LaGrange), something you can't get in Angola," Miller said.

The average lakefront property in the Wolcottville area costs $55,000, has two or three bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths and is a modern-style ranch with its own beach, she said.

But the influx of buyers is pushing up prices in small lake markets as well.

There are more $100,000 homes than ever on the smaller lakes near Wolcottville, Miller said.

Lakefront buyers are willing to pay more than ever for lakefront property, said Realtor Kevin Smith, of Beer Realtors in Syracuse.  The problem is that there is so little of it left.

There have been quite a few buyers in the area who plan to rebuild, Smith said, but that can be very expensive, so they are doing more remodeling.

The size of a lake is frequently described as one of two kinds: fish or ski.  Fish lakes are the smaller, quieter lakes.  Ski lakes are large enough to attract a lot of boating activity.

The principal lakes in Steuben and Kosciusko counties range in size from 800 to more than 3,000 surface acres.  Lakes in Whitley and LaGrange counties are smaller than 150 acres.

In Angola, prices for lakefront property start at $60,000 on a ski lake and $30,000 on a fish lake, Beck said.  These bottom-end prices are older single-story houses with two or three bedrooms.

Some slack occurs in the market at the low and high extremes of the price range, Auer said.  Properties priced at more than $100,000 or less than $30,000 take longer to sell, but they still sell.